AbeBooks book blog

The 50 Funniest American Writers

A man called Andy Borowitz has written a book called The 50 Funniest American Writers: An Anthology of Humor From Mark Twain to The Onion. It comes out in October. USA Today seems to know who Borowitz is but I haven’t got a clue. It’s a shame Bill Hicks didn’t write a book because I can’t think of any American comedian who has come close to him since he died in 1994. Shouldn’t John Kennedy Toole be on the list?

Well…lot of people I never heard of, but some on the list are very good. Carlin’s books are simply compilations of his standup acts, so including him is weak. Garrison Keillor is maybe our greatest oral storyteller, but he loses much on paper. The exclusion of Vonnegut and Carl Hiaasen simply had to be oversights of the greatest magnitude, and I’ll bet mr. Norowitz wishes he had those omissions back.

I just received my copy from Library of America on Wednesday. I’m almost finished reading it and I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard at a book. The breadth of writers they pulled together is amazing – I doubt there’s another anthology out there that would have the vision to include Mark Twain, Nora Ephron, The Onion, Bernie Mac, Dave Barry, John Hughes, Jean Shepherd… I could go on. I don’t miss Vonnegut on the list because the Library of America just did an entire volume of Vonnegut so it would be redundant to have him here. All in all I would have to say that Andy Borowitz knocked it out of the park with this one. No one will agree with every choice he made, but this is flat-out the best American humor collection I’ve seen. A+.

I am not a lover of such anthologies, because they usually feel incomplete (or overlong in the attempt to be complete). However, Mr. Borowitz’s effort here is superb. From Ring Lardner to SJ Perelman to Ian Frazier and Veronica Geng, all the heavyweights are represented here. And the Library of America put it all together in a very attractive package. This is a book to treasure.